What happens when you owe more on your mortgage than your house is worth? Negative equity is a growing concern for some homeowners, but how real are the risks?
Whether or not they smoke, most young people don’t share the tobacco companies’ view that New Zealand’s new smokefree measures will reduce their autonomy or limit their freedoms.
Some commentary suggests a causal relationship between hiking interest rates and unemployment increasing. It’s not quite that simple, but the days of record high employment are probably numbered.
Despite causing hurt and offence, the legality of removing a whale fossil from the West Coast remains unclear. So what rules and laws govern amateur fossil hunting, and should they be strengthened?
Twenty years ago this month the UN affirmed that water is a human right – can this help resolve the political stand-off over New Zealand’s Three Waters reforms?
Sports sponsorship is the main way children are exposed to alcohol marketing. It increases their risk of drinking at earlier ages, drinking more once they start and drinking more hazardously.
In Frozen, Disney created princesses who were more than simply destined for marriage to a handsome prince, but the movie maker still needs to show princesses can truly rule as queens.
Dairy farming accounts for a quarter of New Zealand’s total emissions. Fermentation technology could help cut agricultural emissions, while also restoring water and ecological quality.
Uncertainty around the government’s proposed agricultural emissions pricing scheme is creating a vacuum in the public debate. Maybe it’s time to hand the reins to someone else.
In New Zealand, you can be considered capable of criminal intent from the age of ten. But this is young by international standards, and many believe reform is overdue.
Behind the recent row over money for a school Shakespeare festival lies the bigger problem of theatre funding in general. Establishing a genuine national theatre could be the solution.
The financial troubles at New Zealand’s most famous North Island ski fields are a warning of what lies ahead for many ski resorts – and snow sports in general.
More than 130,000 New Zealanders may suffer from binge eating disorder. Largely invisible, it needs more research to help better diagnosis and treatment.
Despite a reported 6,500% global increase in doctors recommending mental health apps to patients, research suggests they can never substitute for traditional person-to-person care.
Stephen Skalicky, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
‘America’s finest news source’ The Onion wants the US Supreme Court to answer some difficult questions: is satire protected speech, and if so, how do we define it?
Claims that introduced deer perform the same ecological function as ancient moa are outdated and wrong. Deer destroy forests, and large-scale culling is still the best solution.
Even if the new smokefree legislation did cause some temporary extra illegal trade in tobacco, the best response would still be better law enforcement and border control.
Media and investment experts have long touted the ‘Halloween effect’. New data shows there might be truth to these long-held beliefs, showing money flows can follow predictable seasonal patterns.
Dividing students into classroom streams has been the status quo for decades. So why have New Zealand’s two largest teachers’ unions taken the unprecedented step of announcing plans to phase it out?
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University